Believing the Impossible: Book I
by Kylie18
Summary: AMC-David and Erica OLTL Crossover- A Newborn Baby, a tragic accident, and a newspaper article that could change everything.
1. Default Chapter

**Believing the Impossible**  
**Category:** Drama, Mystery, Action, Romacne: Jack and Erica, David and Anna with David and Erica as the end result, of course!!  
**Alternate Universe...sort of!** It's the same for the most part, a few changes to the past, and some differences in the present.

This is a little alternate universe. It's set in present day PV, some events of the last year exclueded, ie. The rape never happened, Leora is still alive, Anna is still in PV, and Babe is still David's daugther, J&E are married. (trust me, there is a method to my madness!!lol)Everything else is the same, ie. Bink's being gay, Lily and Reggie are in PV, things like that.

The AU part is a character I've created. I've always thought that TIIC should have made David's child with Sibohan have lived and evenutally come into his life. I always saw the child as a girl. So since TIIC dropped the ball, I figured I wouldn't.

I changed things a little and made it that their child did survive, and has been with David since she was born, her name is Ashlee. Not to worry, the story will fill in more

**Summary:** A Newborn baby...a tragic accident...and a newspaper article that can change everything.

" Dad? Why is everyone so sad today?" Lily asked innocently from the kitchen counter.  
" Well, do you remember how I told you about Nicholas?" Jacked asked softly handing her, her lunch.  
Lily nodded looking up at him, " Erica's baby, the one who might have been my brother." She replied, proud of herself for remembering.  
Jack nodded his smiling fading. " Yes, today it's been three years since his death. Everyone misses him."  
Lily nodded again her eyes filling with tears, " I don't like it when people are sad."  
" I know sweetheart." Jack said putting his arm around her, " But it will ok, I promise. You go to school and have a wonderful day. Things will be better when you get back."  
Lily nodded smiling up at him as Bianca, Babe and Reggie walked into the kitchen.  
" Hey Lily, you ready to go?" Reggie asked grabbing his keys.  
Lily didn't say anything as she stared blankly at him. " Ashlee's not going to her first class today." Bianca explained, " So Reggie is going to give you a ride."  
" Where is my sister?" Babe asked looking at Jack.  
" She's in her room." Bianca replied.  
" She's sad." Lily announced.  
" Ya she is." Reggie replied motioning for her to come on.  
" Today is hard for all of us, but more so for Ash and Erica. To us Nic was just an idea, he was never real. For them he was a living breathing little person...they got to hold him, to take care of him, he was real to them." Babe said tearfully, Bianca putting her around her.  
" And Ash was the one driving that night. She still blames herself." Reggie mused, his heartbreaking for the pain he knows Ashlee is still in.  
" No one blames her for what happened. She was run off the road and she knows that." Jack said softly, trying in vain to make them feel better. " We all loved that little boy, and were heartbroken when he didn't survive the accident. It's ok to cry and to miss him, but we have keep going with our normal routines."  
The kids nodded in his direction all of them so lost in their memories that they don't notice Ashlee walk in beside them.  
" It doesn't matter how I was put in the situation Jack, I still crashed the car...it was my responsibility to get them home safe, and didn't do it. It's my fault." She whispered tearfully, everyone turning to look at her. Bianca putting her arms around her as soon as she could.  
" You gotta stop this, Ash." Reggie told her comfortingly gently rubbing her back with one hand, " What happened was a tragic accident, it wasn't anybody's fault."  
Ashlee nodded tearfully, still in Bianca's arms. " You gonna be ok?" Bianca asked softly, holding the older girl as tightly as she could, " I can stay with you."  
Ashlee shook her head, looking at Bianca with a sad smile. " No it's ok. I think I'm gonna go to my second class. I just came down to get the newspaper."  
" Ok. We gotta go, it's gonna be ok." Bianca said placing a kiss on the side of Ashlee's head, Babe giving her sister a hug before following the rest of the kids out of the kitchen.  
" Can I get you some breakfast?" Jack asked softly, Ashlee looking around for the paper.  
" No thank you. I gotta go do some homework." She answered not looking at him.  
" Ashlee..." Jack started looking over at the heartbroken teenager. " It will be ok."  
" It'll never be ok, Jack. I killed my brother." She sobbed as she walked out of the kitchen the newspaper in her hand.

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The rain was pounding against the window and the wind was ripping through the trees, it was a sad and mournful day, and it fit her mood perfectly. All she wanted to do was curl up in a little ball and sleep this day away. It was never supposed to be like this...they were never supposed to be trapped in the painful hell that this day brought to them. She still wished that she could wake up and find out that the last 3 years were some kind of horrible nightmare.

She was supposed to be working on a paper for her Political Science class, but she kept flashing back to that day...  
_" It's starting to rain hard, Erica, you gotta drive." Ashlee said her voice filled with panic as she tried to look through the window of her car, the windshield wipers do little to make it easier to see.  
" Ash I can barely see my feet, just slow down and you'll be fine." Erica reassured her.  
" I think we should stop Erica..." She pleaded, thunder lighting the sky in front of them.  
" Where could we stop?"  
" Umm...how about my dad's cabin? It's just up the road, and he's not there. At least it's safe and warm. I've never driven in the rain, I would feel better if we're not on the road."  
Erica nodded flashing her a reassuring smile._

Maybe if she had continued home to Pine Valley, Nicholas would still be alive. Maybe if they had stop shopping a few hours early, maybe if Erica hadn't convinced her miss school that day...maybe if...so many things would have been different...

_" Powers out." Ashlee sighed sitting down next to Erica, " Sorry."  
Erica nodded, smiling at her. " It's alright. Maybe your cell phone works?"  
" Nope, reception up here is bad enough, the storm made me lose the signal completely."  
" We're fine here. The storm should let up in a few hours." Erica said confidently, happy to be in the warm cabin._

She knew something bad was going to happen she could feel it in her veins. But Erica wouldn't listen...they were going shopping, a gift Erica owed to her for her birthday a few months back. They had been shopping in a little town between PV and Llanview; Erica said they had the best clothes there. But they had to take the back roads home, down through a particularly steep mountain road.

_" Oh god." Erica cried grabbing her stomach. They had only been in the cabin a few minutes before the contractions had started. Ashlee was doing her best to keep Erica calm while she tried to monitor the time between each contraction.  
" Please don't have this kid now...I don't know how to deliver a baby." Ashlee joked trying to lighten the mood.  
" It's not up to me." Erica said as a contraction subsided.  
" They're getting closer...we gotta get out here." Ashlee said starting to panic, " I can't deliver this baby."_

Two hours had passed and as the storm got more fiecre so did Erica's contractions. She was going to have to deliver the baby, in a dark cabin in the middle of the thunderstorm.

Erica's pregnancy had been high risk and the doctors ordered her not to do anything extra that might put the baby in danger. They hadn't even wanted to an amniocentesis, and had ruled out a DNA test all together. Erica and Jack had had a brief relationship after Erica's relationship with David ended, and because both affairs were so close together, it was impossible to know who the father was without a DNA test.

She would believe tell the day she died that Nicholas was her flesh and blood brother, after all she'd been the one to look into his eyes...her dad's eyes.

_" If he has black hair, then he's David's...and if not, Jack's. Who needs a DNA test." Ashlee joked wiping Erica's forehead.  
" I wish it was that simple." Erica breathed after her contraction subsided, " But I have a feeling it's going to be a lot more complicated then that."  
Ashlee nodded, once again starting to panic as she realized that Erica's contractions were only seconds apart._

Everything from their talk to Nicholas's birth was a blur...the doctors said that was because of the head trauma she had suffered during the accident. All she knew for sure was that Erica had done it, she'd give birth to a healthy baby boy in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.  
_" Definitely my flesh and blood brother." Ashlee said happily her eyes on Nicholas in Erica's arms.  
" He's beautiful." Erica breathed in awe of her son.  
Nicholas had a full head of hair, a little darker then Erica's and the biggest brown eyes. He had a sweet little nose and a perfect little mouth. He also had the Kane birthmark on the top of his head, a trait that he shared with three generations of Kane women.  
" Nicholas Michael...." Ashlee said smiling at them as she grabbed her camera from her purse. " Kane?" She asked as she kneeled down next to Erica.  
" For now." Erica said quietly, her attention focused solely on Nicholas.  
Ashlee smiled at the pair as she took the first picture Nicholas and Erica._

Those were the first and last pictures ever taken of her brother. They were all she had left...the pictures were in her lap, the edges starting to wear from being handled so much. She kept them in her wallet and took them everywhere. There was only three pictures, one of Erica and Nicholas, one of her and Nicholas and one of just Nicholas. They were the only images of him, the last connection she had to him.

She closed her eyes as the next image raced through her mind...

_" Whoa, Erica, you ok? You don't look so good." Ashlee said from her spot next to Erica, as she placed her hand on Erica's forehead. " You're so pale and kinda clammy..." She said moving as she tried to figure out what was wrong.  
" I'm fine sweetheart." Erica said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.  
" Erica...I don't think there's supposed to be this much blood. I think you might be hemerging." Ashlee told her, her voice filled with concern.  
" I'm fine..." Erica breathed, her lips chattering.  
" Ok, it's going to be ok." Ashlee reassured her, wrapping a blanket around her. " I gotta get you to the hospital."  
" The storm is getting worse." Erica said, laying her head back against the couch. Nicholas was sleeping peacefully in Erica's arms, and she figured that if she was going to get them to the car it would be best when Nic was asleep.  
" We don't have a choice, Erica. You need to get to a hospital."_

It was a task in itself getting Erica and Nicholas to the car, but she had managed to do it. She put Erica in the back seat, and blucked her in. Nicholas was fast asleep in Erica's arms, when she got into the drives seat. She remembered saying a silent prayer, before putting the key in the ignition.

The rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was howling. She remembered how dark the road was, there were no streetlights, and her car lights hadn't helped as they just reflected back as they hit the rain soaked asphalt. They weren't far from Pine Valley Hospital, and she was going a safe speed...

Everything had been fine for the first few minutes, despite the raging storm God had seemed to be on their side.

Until a pair of headlights appeared before her...The car was going the wrong way, and was heading straight for them. She tried to switch lanes but the car followed, she tried to stop but the brakes wouldn't work. And then a second pair of headlights appeared in the rearview mirror...

She switched lanes again, and both cars followed, wedging her between them. The car in front of her sped up, gunning for them, and the car behind her had moved so close it was nearly bumping against the bumper.

They were closing in fast and there absolutely nothing she could have done...

She shook her head desperatley trying to remember what happened next, but as always the only thing she can remember is that she'd woken up in the hospital two days later to the news that Nicholas hadn't survived the crash.

**To be continued...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

She opened her eyes and shook her head, turning her attention to the newspaper in front of her, trying painfully to keep the next memories out of her head.

David had been the one to tell her of Nicholas death. He said that not long after the two cars had wedged her in that the police believed she lost control. The car he said slide on the wet road before flipping over onto its roof before slamming into a tree along the riverbank.

A search party had found them not long after the crash. He told her that Erica had survived the crash, and that she was right that she had hemregged after Nicholas birth. She'd lost a lot of blood and had a pretty nasty concussion, but they believed she'd make a full recovery. Ashlee herself was the most injured; she had a couple of broken ribs, a broken arm, and had had some swelling of the brain.

She remembered all of that, but it was what he said about Nicholas that was burned into her brain. The police hadn't found his little body, but based on evidence they'd come to the conclusion that at some point he'd fallen or had been thrown into the river on impact. The only evidence of his existence that they'd found was the tiny blanket he was wrapped in, half in the water.

Rescuers and the PVPD had searched the river and the banks along the river for days after the accident looking for Nicholas. But they never found anything, and were forced to officially declare him dead 3 days later.

Nicholas Michael Kane...Kane since they didn't know who the father was, was 'buried" or at least was given a headstone next to Mona, his grandmother...5 days after he was born.

She and Erica have never fully accepted Nicholas's fate. Something inside of both of them has always lead them to believe that Nicholas is still alive, where and how he'd survived they didn't know, but they still believed that one day he would show up on the doorstep alive and well.

She shook her head and wiped away a few tears that had managed to fall down her cheeks. David said it was good to cry, that the best thing she could do was let the pain take over for awhile. He knew how guilty she felt, and that she would always blame herself for what had happened. He was the only other person besides Erica who she could cry too, and she was so thankful for that.

Her paper that she had yet to start working on was supposed to be about a local politician, since the elections were just a few weeks away, she'd picked Pennsylvania's Lieutenant Governor Kevin Buchanan to write about. Politics wasn't her thing, but she had to take it so she might as well enjoy it. Her junior year at PVU had just started and she loved being pre-med. She was going to be a doctor just like her dad; only she was going to be pediatrician in honor of Nicholas.

She had spent her first two years at NYU but was so home sick that Erica offered to let her stay with her if she wanted to transfer to PVU. She loved it in Pine Valley, her family was here. She loved spending time with her dad, and watching Leora grow up. Having her baby sister in her life was the biggest help in healing her heart. She loved staying with Erica. Erica had become like the mother she never had, during her relationship with David. Bianca was more like a sister then a best friend, some how they seemed to complete each other...it was as if they'd been destined to be friends.

She laid back against her pillows, smiling for the first time that day. She finally had a family, a strange one, but a family no less.

The article she was reading was hardly holding her attention. It was your basic piece about Kevin Buchcanon and his life. She wondered if maybe she'd missed something by passing on a journalism career. She could spice up this piece without even trying. She read the last paragraph and flipped to the next page, expecting more of the same mindless political spin. Instead she found a picture of Kevin his wife Kelly, and their son Ben.

There was something about their son, Ben...that seemed so familiar to her. She didn't know if it was his big brown eyes or his sweet little smile...she'd seen him somewhere before.

It only took a few second for her to place where she'd seen Ben before...it was every night in a dream that she had. She'd always assumed that it was Nicholas in her dreams, or how he would look if he were still alive. In her dream the doorbell would ring and she would answer it, and there would be this boy...Ben. He would smile up at her and say "Hi" before asking if he could come home now. She would reach down to pick him up, and he would disappear, and then the dream would end.

She was so confused, why was Benjamin Buchanan the little boy in her dream? She read the article further; reading that Ben was three years old and had been adopted by the couple when he was only a few days old. Adopted...the words echoed through her brain, and she instantly had the desire to grab her picture of Nicholas. She held them both side by side, noting the eerie resemblance.

Ben's facial features where exactly what Nicholas's would have been had he been alive. He had the same eyes and smile, even the same hair color. It was like she was looking at a picture of a three year old Nicholas.

Was she, looking at Nicholas? The thought that he could be alive had always been in the back of her mind. They'd never found his body, and soon after waking up in the hospital, she started having what Jack and David called "dreams" and "denial". But she'd always believed they were memories of what had really happened that night...  
She was in the car after it flipped over, and she had just regained consciousness...she could remember blinking her eyes to get the blood and rain water out of them before focusing on three figures. Two of the figures were men, she couldn't see their faces and they were standing on the opposite bank, watching. The third figure was a dark haired woman, she had been walking away from the car, she couldn't see Nicholas, but remembered hearing him crying from the woman's arms. She called out to the woman, what she said was never clear, but the woman turned to her looking at her for a moment before continuing to the other bank. The woman had talked to the men, showed them what was in her arms and then they'd disappeared into the stormy night.

David, Jack and hospital psychologist said that it wasn't a repressed memory, but was a fantasy a glimmer of hope that she was trying to hold on to, and nothing remotely similar had happened. The police backed them up, saying that there was no evidence that Nicholas had been kidnapped. The case was closed with the decliration of Nicholas's death. No one ever even stopped to look into any adoptions or check houses and interview people along the road where the accident had happened. They'd just given up.

She shook her head again, knowing that this was impossible. It was all just some sort of strange coincidence...wasn't it? She had to find out, one way or the other. She couldn't take this to Erica, or to Jack or her Dad. But she would take this to anyone else who would listen. All she wanted to do was know, no matter what the results proved to be. If Benjamin Buchanan was Nicholas she wanted to know how and why, and bring him home...and if he wasn't she wanted that sense of closure, so she could finally move on and begin to heal.

She jumped up from her bed, and grabbed her backpack emptying the contents onto her bed. She grabbed some clothes, a notepad, the article and her pictures of Nicholas and threw them into her bag. She was taking an impromptu trip to Llanview, but she had a stop to make first.

**To be continued...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

She had just left the cemetary and was headed to see Kendall and Aidan. She hated that she'd broken the memorial that they had every year as a family, but this was an extreme circumstance, she done her best to explain that in the note she left.

She'd bought three orange roses, one for each year since Nicholas's death, and taken them to his grave. To her orange was the most apporiate color. For her orange symbolized life and family, and even though Nichloas didn't have either for very long, he would have eternal life and a loving family forever. She'd said a prayer and talked to him, asking him to show her what was right. She'd asked for a sign, anything to tell her not to go to Llanview...but nothing had happened so she was going.

Kendall and Aidan were happy to see her. Kendall espeically, it seemed that everyone always forgot that Nicholas was her brother too. She was going to have a baby of her own anyday, and Ashlee figured that's why she didn't think this idea of Ben being Nicholas was all that crazy. Aidan on the other hand was extremely skeptical.

" Ok, I admit, the resemblence is uncanny." Aidan said looking at a picture of Nicholas and the article's picture of Ben. " But a picture is far from proof that Ben is Nicholas."

Ashlee shook her head, completely agreeing with him. " Of course not. I still have a lot of questions to ask, and I plan to ask them all before even approaching the idea of a DNA test. I know this is crazy Aidan, I do. But I just have this feeling, and I gotta go with it."

Aidan nodded studying her face, " Erica can't know."

" I wouldn't think of telling her, not until I have more evidence."

" Where do we come in?" Kendall asked, ready to help in whatever way she could.

" I need whatever info you can get me. Ummm...Ben's date of bith, where he was born, blood type...maybe adoptions records if you could find them. Whatever you can find, anything."

Aidan nodded, " Ashlee, there is a very big chance that Ben isn't Nicholas, are you perpared for that?"

" Aidan, I know in my head that the chance of Ben being Nicholas are slim and none, but in my heart and in the pit of my stomach I know something else happened the night of the accident. I have never believed that it was just an accident. I had control of the car, Aidan." She said tearfully, silent tears already staining her cheeks." I have always believed that the police should have looked into the idea that he was kidnapped. I saw people on that bank, I saw a woman leave with Nicholas. I'm the reason that Nicholas isn't with Erica, whether he's dead or alive. I need this, Aidan. For me, for my own piece of mind. I need to know once and for all what happened that night...I need to heal." She told him honestly.

" Alright, I'll find out whatever I can." Aidan told her with a smile.

" Thank you, thank you. I have my laptop, so just email me whatever you find."

Kendall nodded, " You got a plan?"

Ashlee smiled at her, laughing lightly. " Of course."

" I should have known." Aidan laughed, " You're going to Llanview?"

Ashlee nodded, but it was Kendall who spoke. " What did you tell Erica and David?"

" I said I went to NYU to see a friend that it was an emergency, and that I would call them as soon as I could."

" Ok. We won't say anything, we never saw you." Aidan told her.

" Thanks." She said.

" Be careful, Ashlee. And whatever the truth is, I hope you find it." Kendall said, giving her a quick good bye hug.

**To be continued...**


End file.
